| Holiday Foods and Activity Needed to Burn Them Off |
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| by Charles Stuart Platkin | |
| Sunday, 17 December 2006 | |
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I look forward to the holidays -- the excitement, the presents, the good cheer and, of course, the food. Oh, the calories are everywhere: the parties, the dinners, the gift baskets, the drinks - and then come the pounds. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not telling anyone not to eat and enjoy, but keep in mind that there is a cost - a calorie cost. The truth is that most of us have no idea what a calorie is worth. We have nothing to compare it to. We may know the definition. But, think about it: What is a calorie's value? One way to determine that is to translate calories into exercise. Knowing the amount of time you need to engage in physical activity to burn off the calories in the foods you consume is a way to help you make conscious and clear food choices. The point is not to tell you which foods you should or shouldn't be eating or the punishment you'll receive for eating a particular food. Rather, it's a tool for deciding what a calorie means and which calories are worth it. In fact, I've written an entire book devoted to translating calories into exercise: The Diet Detective's Count Down (Simon & Schuster, 2007), which lists more than 7,500 foods and the amount of activity (running, walking, swimming, biking, yoga and dance) it would take to burn off their calories. So, in order to make you more aware about your holiday eating, I've taken an excerpt from The Diet Detective's Count Down and added a few key holiday choices to create a "calorie/activity" cheat sheet. The following are typical holiday foods and the number of minutes required to burn them off after you've exhausted your daily caloric budget. You can determine a rough estimate of your own caloric budget by assigning 10 calories per pound for a female and 11 calories per pound for a male, multiplied by your activity level: 1.2 if you're sedentary up to 1.8 if you are very active. For example, a 130-pound female who is somewhat active would have a budget of 1,300 calories multiplied by 1.5, or 1,950 calories per day. If you want to lose weight, you'll need to eat fewer calories than you have in your budget. If you eat more than your budget, you'll gain. For a more exact calculation (or if you're not a math student), you can go to: Eat before: Don't arrive with your stomach rumbling. Instead, try eating enough healthy food beforehand so you're full before you arrive. Then you'll have much more self-control around those tempting party treats. References for The Diet Detective Countdown:
Run 564 per hour / 9.4 calories burned per minute
5 mph (12 min/mile) / 8 METS
Walk 231 per hour / 3.85 calories burned per minute
3.0 mph, level, moderate pace, firm surface. Pace /
3.3 METS
Bicycling, 10-11.9 mph, leisure, slow, light effort /
6 METS
Swim 490 hour / 8.17 calories burned per minute
Swimming laps, freestyle, slow, moderate or light effort/
7 METS
Yoga 175 hour / 2.916 calories burned per minute
Hatha yoga / 2.5 METS
Dance 352 hour / 5.875 calories burned per minute
Dancing / 5 METS
*Based on 155 pound person, the more weight of the individual the more calories burned per hour.
CHARLES STUART PLATKIN is a nutrition and public health advocate, author of the bestseller Breaking the Pattern (Plume, 2005), The Diet Detective's Count Down (Simon & Schuster, 2007) and founder of Integrated Wellness Solutions. Copyright 2006-7 by Charles Stuart Platkin. Sign up for the free Diet Detective newsletter at www.dietdetective.com. Bookmark:            Trackback(0)
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